This is what made me realize maybe I should try my luck with the command line.
I haven’t had to touch any advanced stuff to do non advanced stuff in a while. Windows has conditioned me badly. For example when my laptop had no mic during a meeting I instantly assumed it was drivers fucking up again ala windows, so I started finding new drivers. After reverting the change I discovered it was just firefox that had disabled the mic. Smoothest “y no audio” bugfix I’ve ever had compared to “ready for the home user” windows discord, zoom, teams, skype constantly shitting the bed randomly.
Something to remember is that even Linux’s GUI is essentially just “visual shortcuts” for shell commands. Having the terminal open doesn’t necessarily mean mucking about with the complex inner workings of your system. (But you can do that too!)
You can do really simple low-risk things like moving files around, making new text documents, renaming stuff, and starting simple script programs, in your home directory.
Heck, easiest way to make it less intimidating? Update your system with it.
sudo apt update
or
zypper dup or so on. (Depending on distro)
rm to remove stuff is the scary command that’s worth treating with great respect. Get in the habit now of double checking yourself before slamming enter. I usually move (mv) things I intend to delete to my /tmp/ directory so I have a chance to fix it, or else it just erases on next reboot.
Oh, and lastly, we’ve all done it and those who say “Well I never” are lying…but try to avoid copy pasting commands you don’t recognize from the internet into your terminal!
(Many forum replies are just like “try this long complicated one-liner to fix your issue!”)
Harmful commands can be hidden in text weirdly enough. There’s examples online but it blew my mind how that was possible. So at the very least, type it out yourself, and it couldn’t hurt doing a quick lookup to see what it’s supposed to do before committing to it.
The Linux community is often super helpful and lovely, but old posts could potentially be poisoned by bad actors and such, so keep your head up out there. :)
This is what made me realize maybe I should try my luck with the command line. I haven’t had to touch any advanced stuff to do non advanced stuff in a while. Windows has conditioned me badly. For example when my laptop had no mic during a meeting I instantly assumed it was drivers fucking up again ala windows, so I started finding new drivers. After reverting the change I discovered it was just firefox that had disabled the mic. Smoothest “y no audio” bugfix I’ve ever had compared to “ready for the home user” windows discord, zoom, teams, skype constantly shitting the bed randomly.
Today’s your lucky day! :D Here’s a really simple (and fun) way to start trying it out.
https://linuxjourney.com/lesson/the-shell
Such a lovely site.
Something to remember is that even Linux’s GUI is essentially just “visual shortcuts” for shell commands. Having the terminal open doesn’t necessarily mean mucking about with the complex inner workings of your system. (But you can do that too!)
You can do really simple low-risk things like moving files around, making new text documents, renaming stuff, and starting simple script programs, in your home directory.
Heck, easiest way to make it less intimidating? Update your system with it.
sudo apt updateor
zypper dupor so on. (Depending on distro)rmto remove stuff is the scary command that’s worth treating with great respect. Get in the habit now of double checking yourself before slamming enter. I usually move (mv) things I intend to delete to my/tmp/directory so I have a chance to fix it, or else it just erases on next reboot.Oh, and lastly, we’ve all done it and those who say “Well I never” are lying…but try to avoid copy pasting commands you don’t recognize from the internet into your terminal! (Many forum replies are just like “try this long complicated one-liner to fix your issue!”)
Harmful commands can be hidden in text weirdly enough. There’s examples online but it blew my mind how that was possible. So at the very least, type it out yourself, and it couldn’t hurt doing a quick lookup to see what it’s supposed to do before committing to it.
The Linux community is often super helpful and lovely, but old posts could potentially be poisoned by bad actors and such, so keep your head up out there. :)